If there's one thing we like better than excellent individual artists, it's excellent individual artists working together. (See the Rude Mechanicals, Okay Mountain, Austin Video Bee.) With Lakes Were Rivers, 11 of Austin's sharpest, most industrious artists working in photography and video formed a collective so they could support and critique one another's work – and that wasn't just code for warm baths of unqualified praise. They pushed one another to make better art. And their focus on mutual betterment appears to have succeeded: Five of the 11 were selected to exhibit in this year's Austin Museum of Art "New Art in Austin: 15 To Watch" show, four had photos chosen for the 2011 Texas Biennial, and three were nominated for the Austin Visual Arts Association's Artist of the Year award for photography. And the first book from Lakes Were Rivers? Sold out. Well, with photographers of this caliber, it's not surprising that something clicked.
